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2/8/09

Medium

By the way, Medium is back on t.v. This is a show I NEVER thought I would've liked, but have slowly come to love. It's funny, my best friend from high school and I have something in common. We suffer bouts of obsession, that are usually tough for us to explain. We are mysteriously drawn to specific television shows, actors, genres, whatever...for small stretches of time. Then the obsession fades and we just add that particular media to our library. We just all of the sudden have an insatiable curiosity for a show or film. I went through that with Medium when we had Netflix, and I figured out why later.

It's the marriage that's portrayed. It's so seldom that we see a marriage on television or in film that is portrayed as functional. The couple from Medium still has a spark, still has pssion. And it's just SO trendy to show loveless marriages or sullen people or households with deep dark secrets. (Desperate Housewives) This show portrays the couple fighting, which is a normal part of life. And the fights don't threaten their relationship, which is also a trend in television and film writing used to create suspense. But t's over-used at this point. This show features the mundane every day business of living together, who's driving who where and is your cell phone charged, and all that jazz.

Yes, the show is about a woman with pyschic tenedencies. (Or if you're religious, you could call it, "the gift of prophecy", whatever...) I'm not super big into that subject matter, but at it's heart, it's a show about a marriage and a family. The writers allow their main characters to be less than perfect and there's something fascinating about that. Usually in film or television it's like, good people do good things, bad people make mistakes and deserve to be doomed. But this show allows a bit of realism, which is ironic considering its subject matter.

There's also been Patricia Arquette's public battles over anonymous network people who informed her that she needed to lose weight for the show at one point. She refused, saying that it was way more accurate to be the NORMAL size that she was since she was portraying an average American mother and wife. That earned her and the show some major bonus points in my eyes, especially because it was discussed almost as an after thought, and not a battle fought on the covers of tabloids.

It's also cast really well, there's only a couple of actors that I don't love...but I won't name names.

It's also been ahead of itself when almost "jumping the shark". When it got too formulaic, it changed the plot. In many ways. That's something else I admire about it. They say some actors either have it or they don't, I think it's the same thing with television shows. I could list all the qualities that are great about Medium, but I think it's something intangible that makes it a truly good show. One that I want to watch every week, like 30 ROCK and The Office. Allow me to leave you with a fan girl moment from an episode that every Medium geek somply must find and watch for themselves. It was one of the most cinematic and endearing episodes of all.

Stealing is Wrong

All of the text and many of the photos here are exclusive property of Audrey Brown, (c) 2008-2018. Link without needing my permission, reference your little heart out (as long as I'm cited). Just don't steal.